Download a blob to a file path

az storage blob download --account-name storage_account_name --account-key storage_account_key -c container_name -n path/to/blob -f path/to/local_file

Motivation: This command allows you to download a blob from a storage container to a local file path. It is useful when you want to retrieve a specific blob for analysis or further processing on your local machine.

Explanation:

• --account-name: Specifies the name of your Azure Storage account.
• --account-key: Specifies the access key for your Azure Storage account.
• -c or --container-name: Specifies the name of the container where the blob is stored.
• -n or --name: Specifies the path to the blob.
• -f or --file: Specifies the local file path where the blob will be downloaded.

Example output:

Downloaded blob 'path/to/blob' to 'path/to/local_file'.

Download blobs from a blob container recursively

az storage blob download-batch --account-name storage_account_name --account-key storage_account_key -s container_name -d path/to/remote --pattern filename_regex --destination path/to/destination

Motivation: This command allows you to download multiple blobs from a container recursively. It is useful when you want to retrieve all blobs from a specific container and its subdirectories for offline processing or backup purposes.

Explanation:

• --account-name: Specifies the name of your Azure Storage account.
• --account-key: Specifies the access key for your Azure Storage account.
• -s or --source: Specifies the name of the container to download blobs from.
• -d or --destination: Specifies the local directory path to save the downloaded blobs.
• --pattern: Specifies the regular expression pattern for matching specific blob filenames.

Example output:

Downloaded 5 blobs from 'container_name' to 'path/to/destination'.

Upload a local file to blob storage

az storage blob upload --account-name storage_account_name --account-key storage_account_key -c container_name -n path/to/blob -f path/to/local_file

Motivation: This command allows you to upload a local file to blob storage. It is useful when you want to store a file in Azure Blob Storage for later retrieval or sharing with others.

Explanation:

• --account-name: Specifies the name of your Azure Storage account.
• --account-key: Specifies the access key for your Azure Storage account.
• -c or --container-name: Specifies the name of the container where the blob will be stored.
• -n or --name: Specifies the path to the blob.
• -f or --file: Specifies the local file path to upload.

Example output:

Uploaded file 'path/to/local_file' as blob 'path/to/blob' in container 'container_name'.

Delete a blob object

az storage blob delete --account-name storage_account_name --account-key storage_account_key -c container_name -n path/to/blob

Motivation: This command allows you to delete a specific blob object from a storage container. It is useful when you want to remove a blob that is no longer needed or to clean up storage space.

Explanation:

• --account-name: Specifies the name of your Azure Storage account.
• --account-key: Specifies the access key for your Azure Storage account.
• -c or --container-name: Specifies the name of the container where the blob is stored.
• -n or --name: Specifies the path to the blob to be deleted.

Example output:

Deleted blob 'path/to/blob' from container 'container_name'.

Generate a shared access signature for a blob

az storage blob generate-sas --account-name storage_account_name --account-key storage_account_key -c container_name -n path/to/blob --permissions permission_set --expiry Y-m-d'T'H:M'Z' --https-only

Motivation: This command allows you to generate a shared access signature (SAS) for a specific blob. A SAS provides limited access permissions to the blob without exposing the account key. It is useful when you want to share access to a blob securely with others.

Explanation:

• --account-name: Specifies the name of your Azure Storage account.
• --account-key: Specifies the access key for your Azure Storage account.
• -c or --container-name: Specifies the name of the container where the blob is stored.
• -n or --name: Specifies the path to the blob for which the SAS is generated.
• --permissions: Specifies the permissions granted to the SAS. Can be a combination of “r” (read), “w” (write), “d” (delete), and “l” (list).
• --expiry: Specifies the expiration date and time of the SAS in the format “Y-m-d’T’H:M’Z’”.
• --https-only: Specifies whether the SAS can only be used with HTTPS requests.

Example output:

Shared access signature (SAS) for blob 'path/to/blob' generated successfully.
SAS: ?sv=2020-08-04&ss=b&srt=c&sp=rwdlacx&se=2022-12-31T23:59:59Z&st=2022-01-01T00:00:00Z&spr=https&sig=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Conclusion

In this article, we explored different use cases of the az storage blob command. We learned how to download a blob to a file path, download multiple blobs recursively, upload a local file to blob storage, delete a blob object, and generate a shared access signature for a blob. These examples demonstrate the versatility and power of the az storage blob command in managing blob storage containers and objects in Azure.